Program Overview
The Water Resources Research Act Program, authorized by section 104 of the Water Resources Research Act (WRRA) of 1984, is a Federal–State partnership that plans, facilitates, and coordinates water resources research, education, and information transfer through a matching grant program. The WRRA authorized the establishment of State Water Resources Research Institutes (National Institutes for Water Resources; NIWR) at land grant universities across the Nation. There are currently 54 Institutes: one in each State, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam. The Institute in Guam serves the Federated States of Micronesia and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Institute in Hawaii also serves American Samoa.
Program Components
Program Budget Information
USGS Annual Federal Appropriations Budget provides documents such as Budget Justifications (Greenbook), press releases, funding tables, fact sheets, and more, organized by Fiscal Year (FY).
Budget Process Overview
Each year, federal agencies formulate a budget for the following fiscal year based on guidance and input from the Executive Office of the President (which includes the Office of Management and Budget), and, for USGS, the Department of the Interior. Congressional budget justifications (for the USGS, this is known as the “Greenbook”) are submitted to Congress as the President’s Budget Request by law on the first Monday in February prior to the new fiscal year starting October 1. Following release of that Budget Request, agencies work to justify their budget and answer questions from Congress. Over the next 8 months, each chamber of Congress provides their proposed budgets, referred to as the House and Senate “Marks”. Based on these Marks, Congress works to negotiate a final bill that, once passed, goes to the President’s desk for signature. Once signed, the bill becomes law. The agencies are then required to produce an operating plan to justifies the funding appropriated by Congress.
During the budget process, the USGS interacts with the Appropriations committees in each chamber. Specifically, the USGS falls under the jurisdiction of the Appropriations Subcommittee for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. For more information on these subcommittees, please visit the following websites:
In addition to the Appropriations committees, the USGS receives questions from various Congressional stakeholders. These stakeholders, referred to as authorizing committees, have specific oversight responsibilities that include authorizing agency activities and providing guidance regarding appropriate levels of funding levels to carry out the authorized activities. The USGS resides in the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. However, the Water Resources Mission Area reports to a separate subcommittee than the rest of the USGS. For more information on these committees, please visit the following websites:
A summary of the authorizations that are relevant to the WRRA can be found at the Authorizations page of this site.
